Our View: Cupcakes, soda and other food for thought

Thursday

May 29, 2014 at 4:00 PM

Illinois lawmakers are about to wrap up their legislative session, and we’re sure you feel much better about the state of the state now that lawmakers have addressed such pressing issues as cupcakes and soda. Pizza probably wasn’t on the legislative menu.

Here’s our take on some of the issues lawmakers dealt with during the session.

Cupcake bill. Chloe Stirling’s story has to be the silliest, most glaring example of government overreach we’ve seen. Chloe, a 12-year-old who lives in Troy, did the dastardly deed of selling homemade cupcakes to family and friends. An article in the local newspaper alerted the Madison County Health Department, which shut her down.

She was told she needed to follow the rules by setting up a commercial kitchen and other nonsense. What’s next? Make grandma get a permit before the kids can eat a cookie or two at Christmas?

Getting the Illinois General Assembly involved usually is enough to make you lose your appetite, but this time common sense prevailed.

House Bill 5354 prevents county and state health departments from regulating small, home-based food businesses that earn less than $1,000 a month. It’s a good, one-page bill, yet it almost didn’t turn out that way.

The bill passed the House 106-0, but once it got into the Senate, Sen. Donne E. Trotter wanted to add a bunch of rules like requiring a food safety course, permits and other stuff that would be burdensome to anyone, let alone a sixth-grader. Fortunately, senators rejected the amendments. When the original bill was resubmitted, it passed 57-0.

Soda tax: The soda tax is dead — for now. The Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee on Tuesday voted it down. The tax would have added 1 cent per ounce of sweetened beverage, or an extra 20 cents for that Coke you get out of your company’s vending machine.

Educating people on how to live healthier is a good idea, but legislating an extra fee to sip a sugary soda is not. Discouraging people from consuming those 200 calories in a typical soft drink isn’t going to turn fat people into fit people.

Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago, the sponsor of the bill, has said she will keep trying. We hope all her attempts meet with the same results.

Nonbinding referendums: Usually we think it’s good to let voters decide, but not when it means lawmakers are shirking their duty.

Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is pushing nonbinding referendums on whether there should be a tax on millionaires and whether Illinois should raise the minimum wage. Those are tough issues that we pay our lawmakers to decide.

Given how few people vote, a scientific poll probably would be a more accurate way to gauge public opinion.

Land of Lincoln: Madigan also wants to create a new state agency to oversee Springfield’s Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency is responsible for the museum and 55 other historic sites. Madigan thinks the Lincoln museum, which has drawn more than 3 million visitors since it opened in 2005, should be run by its own agency. The transfer of power is expected to cost taxpayers $2.4 million.

The idea may have merit, but it has come up too quickly to decide whether it’s a good move or not. Plus, the state should be in a penny-pinching mode considering the condition of its finances.

School funding: State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, sponsored a bill that would reduce funds to more wealthy school districts and give the money to needier districts. Rockford schools would get an additional $18.5 million, a 17.5 percent increase; Harlem would get $2 million more (8.7 percent); Belvidere would get an additional $3.1 million (12.1 percent); North Boone would see $926,000 more (17.1 percent); Hononegah High School would get $101,000 more (2.2 percent); and Freeport would see $3 million more (18.1 percent).

The Illinois Senate approved Manar’s bill. A system that has been in place since 1997 and is not working for the districts that need the most help must change. We hope representatives take up the issue.

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